Snow Day Saturday

There have been some unsettling changes happening in my life this fall, changes that I do not want to share in this space, and as a result I have been somewhat silent here for the past few months.  In the midst of these changes, I have been mindful of taking care of me, letting myself move a little slower (which life, fortunately, has gone along with) and investing my time in things that comfort and soothe my soul.

Although we are in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Christmas, today was a gift, a snowy Saturday where we all could stay home, take our time doing a little work but mostly resting and playing, enjoying the peace of Christmas lights, one another, and a day long snow fall.

Barely any snow at 10am but he was ready to go play!

How do you like the mulch-snow angel?

We blew up "Snowy" to welcome the first snow of the year

The very best afternoon - baking cookies, Little B being creative and...

Little P napping

Nighttime walk through falling snow - in spite of running, shouting, snow-ball throwing boys, still romantic:)

The peace I have been enjoying every night

 It feels to me like not just my life but the whole world is filled with unrest right now.  Praying that all of you are finding ways to find a little bit of peace in the midst of it all too.

Birthday Fun

The boys have been talking for days about the birthday scavenger hunt they created for me.  Little P, amazingly, even kept it a secret.  And I (not so patiently) waited all day today for its unveiling.  Their creativity amazed and delighted me, so here it is for all my world to see!

We hope you are elated, For this house bound game, Five clues the boys created, To find your presents is the aim.

The first clue wrapped in that blue ribbon read:

"There are no slimy pickles in this smaller "play" version of a real room,"

which lead to, of course, the play kitchen!

The second clue, wrapped in that white ribbon on top of the Melissa & Doug birthday cake, read:

"First Monet, then Colonial Williamsburg, will get you to Puerto Rico and your next clue."

Yup, that Puerto Rico thing stumped me too and had me hilariously laughing at its absurdness, until I remembered that we own a board game named Puerto Rico, which is right next to some Colonial Williamsburg picture frames in the guest room...

The third clue read:

"Pirate pig is looking in the direction of a collection of mostly handmade items that keep you warm"

I'll admit, once I got past laughing about the pirate pig phrase, it took me a little while to figure out what in the world they were talking about.  The boys finally gave me some clues, which reminded me of Little B's pirate themed piggy bank, which was positioned on his desk to look into his closet, specifically to the pile of knitted baby blankets on his shelf.

Inside was a new mouse pad with pictures of my boys and the next clue:

"Five "family" animals arrayed 2 by 2 keep watch over your next present"

This clue was tricky too.  There are two places in the house where we have a collection of my grandmother's water color artwork, many of which are animals.  The first spot revealed exactly five animals peering down on a beautiful new plant for my windowsill from Longwood (hidden in the midst of little man's Lego fire station, of course),

and the last clue:

"A new source of light and heat is helping your last present shine."

To the new fireplace - of course!  And some earrings the boys picked out for me:)

(Can you tell which little boy just couldn't keep his little hands from "helping"?) 

Kudos to my amazing husband and enthusiastic little boys!  Years ago when I named this blog I was a young mommy, amazed at the overflowing love I felt for my young family.  It was a wonderful gift tonight to feel that overflowing love coming back from them.  And many thanks to everyone else who sent happy birthday wishes, I gratefully accept them and send all my love back to each of you.

 

 

Summer loves

Here we are - the end of a week, the end of a month, 2/3rds of the way through summer.  I'll admit that I've had quite a few "is it time to go back to school yet?!" moments this week, so in case any other moms out there are burning out and looking for some fresh ideas, here are a couple of the things that have been entertaining us this summer.

Mr. Lemoncello - Little B and I stumbled upon Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library when we were looking for a new chapter book to read and once we started reading, we couldn't finish it fast enough.  What an entertaining book!  It is children's fantasy in a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sort of way, where an ordinary kid is dropped into an extraordinary competition which revolves around books, games and an out of this world library. We blitzed through an audiobook version of the second book, Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics in a week and the boys were seriously disappointed that they have to wait until October for the third book to be published.  I know reading children's fiction isn't for everybody, but this was a quick and entertaining read that I cannot recommend enough for anyone who loves books.

Story time at the local creamery?  Yes please!

Moana - Hooray for Disney making their latest feature available on Netflix!  We enjoyed the movie so I bought the soundtrack on a whim before a road trip and we have been rocking out to the Polynesian-esque music ever since.  (Also, I give myself a couple cool points for owning some of Lin-Manuel Miranda's music!)  Little P's favorite song is, "Where You Are" because, in his words, "I like the coconuts!"  Little B's favorite song is, "Song 9" (otherwise known to the rest of the world as "Logo Te Pate"), something about the beat of that song resonates in his head and heart.  I witnessed him one time going to town drumming along with the song on the sides of his car seat, I'm still waiting for his encore.

Happy boy - that thing behind him was a water slide!

Geo-caching - I spent a morning a couple years ago geo-caching with a friend and her older son.  We really just walked along with/behind them because my boys were too young to get it.  We had an empty morning this week so I decided to try it and it was a hit!  We found three of the five caches we went after, feeling awesomely victorious when we found the first one and a more than a bit bummed with the ones we couldn't find.  I suppose there's a lesson in perseverance to be found in this game.  I'm looking forward to searching out more caches as we continue our summer adventures in the next couple weeks.

Don't worry - he didn't eat that whole thing by himself

Bedtime Math - I learned about this app/website from our library's summer reading program last summer and cannot believe it has taken me this long to mention it here because it is awesome.  There is a short, interesting story everyday and then three different level math questions that are based on the story.  My kids are at the Little Kids and Big Kids levels and generally can't wait to look at the question over breakfast (that's the time that works best for us).  This is a super easy way to keep the math brain cells stirring over summer break (and, really, all year long).

How they felt the day Mom forgot to bring the towel bag to swim lesson (whomp!)

Wow in the World - NPR started this podcast for kids back in May and we are loving it!  The two hosts take a scientific news story, or just a concept of interest to kids, add a dose of kid-appropriate silliness and the result is 15-20 captivating minutes of learning and fun (and yes, we start the NPR brain washing early in our house;)  There are a couple of follow-up discussion questions for each podcast on their website that extend the scientific silliness in the best way possible.

Sparkler driveway fun

 So that's all I got, at least for now.  We have one more big trip and one more small one before we have to start waking up on school-bus time so that we're ready for the big first day.  If anything has been rocking your world this summer please pass it along, we still have plenty of time for entertainment and learning and adventuring!  

A piece of summer pie

And just like that, June is over.  I am ending this month with a great amount of peace and happiness in my heart, because the huge project that I have been working on since the start of this year and in earnest for the past month is complete, and I think it was a success.  Vacation Bible School can be just one piece of a Christian Educator's job, but this was my first time running the show and it's invigorating to know that I really can do this thing that I say I'm called to do.  Plenty of thoughts in my head about how to do it better in the future, of course, and lots of debriefing and volunteer thank you notes to write.  But so much less pressure now!

First morning of VBS, and by God's grace we were still all smiles at the end

I pray that they will always find strength and confidence and joy in their faith

Despite the fact that my mind and time have been overwhelmingly devoted to VBS all month, we managed to fit in a lot.  Little B went to see his first professional theatrical show with Grampa at the Kennedy Center (Sound of Music, and yes I am jealous that I wasn't included).  Little P turned 4!

Invited a friend over for a birthday play date, which included a silly string fight!

Both boys took a short trip on the Amtrak train, which might just be the highlight of their whole summer so far.  They had a sleepover at Gramma's and Mom-Mom's homes, both of which included trips to the pool.  They visited a Smithsonian museum and an Amish Village.  They helped raise a huge American flag at Ft. McHenry and went strawberry and blueberry picking.

Yes, that is a giant strawberry playground.

 They are devouring Harry Potter books as frequently as Hubby T and I will sit down to read to them and delighting in a newfound favorite show (SuperWhy, thanks for the suggestion Aunt A!).

Sound like enough for one summer?  Time to slow down and eat the massive amount of zucchini that our garden is producing?  No way, there is much more to come.  Watch out July here we come!

Enjoying a few quiet days at home before we're off again!

 

Made for This

So this happened...

Turtle and Ladybug years complete - onto the Froglets!

and this happened...

Last day of kindergarten - check!

Onto bigger and better things...

And now summer is here - calendar wise (mid-June) and weather wise (90 degrees, phew) and schedule wise (wait, I have both kids all day every day now?!).  Kindergarten was not rigorous enough to make me breathe a sigh of relief now that it's over.  Instead I am finding myself at a bit of a loss, as both my kids keep looking to me to entertain them and it's happening almost non-stop from sun up to sun down.  What's a restless crew and their uninspired mom to do?  Get out of the house!

Yesterday we adventured to a familiar place to see a new thing.  The main fountain garden at Longwood has been closed for renovation ever since we joined almost two years ago.  But now it's open and beautiful and there are new things to be explored, like a (shaded!) grotto!  And a waterfall near the chime tower!

 
Today we adventured in the other, mostly unfamiliar direction to find an Amish lawn furniture company that has 18 play sets out for display and is open to the public for free play time.  The heat didn't put any sort of damper on the excitement of these two at such a display.  They ran hard until they started asking for water and I observed that every piece of hair on their heads was drenched in sweat.  Time for this mom-referee to call the game.

This play set had a slide that ended in a ball pit - jackpot!

Then we drove a short distance away to visit The Amish Village.  I have been wanting to visit one of these places and learn more about the Amish ever since we moved here.  The place we visited was a little weak, I can't say that I learned all that much new about the Amish, but it was an interesting and entertaining visit nonetheless.  Little B said his favorite part was seeing the inside of the buggy they drive in that we pass on the road sometimes.

Hard to believe that some people still learn in rooms like this

And simmering in the background of all this summertime is Vacation Bible School because this year, for the very first time, I am a VBS Director.  I have been working on this since January and now it's less than two weeks away and I am thinking about it all the time (hmm, maybe that explains my lack of inspiration for entertaining my kiddos?)  On the one hand, I am terrified of being unprepared or mis-planning something.  I want to get everything beyond just right, I want it all to be great, like Tony the Tiger gggrrreat!  I also recognize that no matter how hard I work, something will go wrong and I need to accept that I can't make everything perfect for everybody, especially my first time around (it's all about grace in a church anyway, right?)  On the other hand, I am absolutely thrilled because I am finally digging into the work that I was called to do.  I don't have time to search back through the blog and see if I ever wrote about my "call" story to provide a link to it but if you haven't heard it, rest assured that I do have one and helping children learn about God and a life of faith is undoubtedly my God-given calling in life (along with being a mom of course).  So you can imagine the joy in my heart as I drove along the beautiful country roads this morning, my amazing children in the backseat, singing away with me at the top of our lungs to our VBS songs.  I kid you not folks, the words to this year's theme song are,

"I was made for this, I live for this
God has a reason, a reason for my life.
I wanna shout it out, without a doubt,
I was born for this, built for a purpose."

Adventures with my children?  Planning VBS?  All of us using this summer to sense our ways forward from here?  It may sometimes be hard to do it all but I am treasuring this season of life.  (And, let's be honest, the anticipation of vacations that are on the horizon...)  Bring it on summer!      

 

Math problems

The more my boys grow the more apparent it becomes that they have some budding STEAM brains blossoming in their heads (science, technology, engineering, etc.).  Little P loves to build - duplos, baby blocks, crazy fort sticks, tents, pillows, forts, anything he can get his hands on.  Building is his go-to play activity.  And Little B is constantly wondering about how things work and asking questions to understand the inner-working of things.  Right now he's focused on DC's Metro system.  Somehow in the course of dinner conversation tonight the boys started asking math questions and posing "hypotheses" to each other.  It was too good not to share.

It all started when Little B commented that he was cold and I suggested he put more layers on.  One of the boys commented that he wouldn't be cold with 100 layers on and I pointed out that with 100 layers on, he wouldn't be able to move his arms to eat his food (picturing the little brother from A Christmas Story with his snow suit on).  So we created a hypothesis: how many shirts could he put on and still move his arms to eat his food?  Little B guessed 50.  Little P guessed 2.  Sadly, they would not agree to test this hypothesis with me;)

Little P recognizes numbers but doesn't have a real understanding of math concepts yet.  So his questions are along the lines of: "What's 100 milks plus 1 milk?" and "What's 100 tractors plus 48 horses?  7!"

Maybe it's because I'm tired, maybe it was the wine, but this one left me in stitches...
Little B: "What's 1,000 plus 1,000?"
Little P: (with all the volume and enthusiasm he could muster) "1,000!!"

Finally, in an attempt to stump me, Little B asked me how many days were left in this year.  "If there are 366 or 365 days in a year, how many are left this year?"  I guessed about 240 and explained that I derived that number by knowing that this week marks President Trump's 100th day in office and that he was inaugurated on January 20, so subtract 120 from 365 and you get about 240.  I must have used the word celebrate in there somewhere, perhaps to remind him of the celebration his class had of their 100th day of school, because he paused to think and then said, "Mom, I guess you're not celebrating this week!"  Truth son, truth.

Concluding statement from Little P: (as serious as he could be) "This really stumped you."

Another goodbye

Today feels like too momentous a day to let pass without reflection.  This morning I said goodbye to my childhood home.  My parents bought it 23 years ago, at the end of my fourth grade year, so the majority of my years growing up (especially those that I was old enough to remember) were spent here.

Picture of the house the spring we moved in

As I walked around the nearly empty house last night and this morning, I found myself remembering the different ways the rooms looked over the years.  Where the piano was before and after our move to California.  How the family room furniture was arranged the morning I came home from school early to watch the coverage of the 9/11 attacks.  Where the family computer was and how I could hear the screeching of the AOL dial up over the sounds of brushing my teeth.  And of course my bedroom, which had countless permutations because rearranging my room was a thing for me.  It was in that room where I struggled with middle school angst, my scoliosis, high school boyfriend drama, college applications.  It was in this home that I completed countless hours of homework at the kitchen table while my mom worked away in the kitchen (as if I wondered where I got that habit from!)  It was in this home that Hubby T and I had dinner on our first date, where we planned our wedding, where I had my miscarriage, and where we brought our children to know their aunt and grandparents.  Life has been well lived in this home.

One more run through the backyard, which I think is what they will remember most about this house

When I was growing up, a sign hung on our wall, "Home is where the Navy sends you."  Considering we moved four times by the time I was six this made sense to me.  That sign disappeared somewhere along the way, maybe when my dad retired and this place could stay our home, until the time came to move on, which is now.  I hope the family who moves in here builds a wonderful life, as we did.

Trying to make mommy feel better as we said goodbye

For now I am anxious for the sting of saying goodbye to fade, comforting myself with happy memories, the peace and joy I have in my own current home, and the wise words of Miranda Lambert, "Won't take nothin' but a memory from the house that built me"